Capital gain in Switzerland

Capital gain in Switzerland

1/2

Go with the flow: Bern’s quaint Old Town, a Unesco World Heritage site characterised by its narrow lanes and sandstone houses, is surrounded by the River Aare

2/2

Square: Bern’s Bärenplatz, above, and the Statue of Justice made in 1543

The Swiss capital is a beautiful, compact place to spend a weekend and yet remarkably unknown today. It wasn’t always so. In the 1950s Bern was a must-see destination for the Jet Set. Sophia Loren, Peter Ustinov, Ursula Andress and Yehudi Menuhin all took suites at Hotel Schweizerhof, just by the hauptbahnhof.

Visually Bern has hardly changed since then. In fact it has hardly changed since 1903 when Albert Einstein and his new wife moved into an apartment here on Kramgasse. Or indeed since the 15th century when, according to legend, a knight returning from the wars brought a bear with him and deposited it by the Nydegg Bridge.

The bear — or at least one of its descendants — is there still, a living heraldic symbol of Bern, although now there is a bear park beside the river for him and his partner. Until 2009 the bears of Bern still lodged in a medieval pit by the bridge.

Little changes in Bern, which is definitely part of its charm. Quite why the glitterati flocked here in the 1950s — and then decamped to Gstaad — rather mystifies me but in search of the answer I started below the famous Zytglogge at the top of Kramgasse.

This 13th-century defensive tower and astronomical clock is one of the chief attractions of Bern, but it’s also a perfect place from which to view the capital.

In all directions tall terraces in grey-green sandstone loom up five storeys high. They run in unbroken lines, narrow frontages held up by huge buttresses at ground level. In front of each rises an angled trap door down which wine could be delivered to the cellar. In medieval times Bern granted each citizen one-and-a-half litres a day.

Everywhere you look, there are bears: on drinking fountains, on statues, coats of arms, flags — even on the Zytlogge’s clock. Among the features of this remarkable device are a statue of a king who turns his hour glass over every hour, a golden rooster that crows, a golden lion that beats out the hours in time to the king’s sceptre, a jester who rings bells ahead of the hour and, best of all, a rotating procession of eight bears.

Inevitably, people congregate for this hourly spectacle but then, unless you’re part of the federal government, there isn’t a lot to do in Bern. From here you can walk south to Kochergasse and the lovely little gated mansion which is the headquarters of the Burgergemeinde. These are the patriarchs of Bern, a money-based elite who have their own bank and organisation within the city. Or walk north to Kornhausplatz where the technicolour Ogre Fountain depicts in some detail an ogre devouring children.

My choice though was to walk along Kramgasse to Einstein’s apartment, which is now a museum up some narrow stairs. It’s also a chance to see the interior of one of these tall, stone terraced houses. Here in two tiny rooms Mileva Einstein cared for her son, while Papa Albert worked at Bern’s Office for intellectual property. The kitchen was in a separate block at the back to avoid fires spreading.

It’s an unremarkable apartment for remarkable thoughts, convincingly stuffed with all the furniture necessary for bourgeois life at the beginning of the 20th century. It’s amazing to think that here in 1905 Einstein not only worked out that E = mc2 but wrote four other groundbreaking papers.

Kramgasse tips steeply down towards Nydegg Bridge. I followed it, keeping out of the sun by walking under the arcades that run on both sides of the street, then turned right at the Samson fountain to take one of the passageways that run transversely across the streets of Bern.

The city is full of these shortcuts and once you get the hang of them it’s like playing snakes and ladders. The only snakes are when you lose your sense of direction and overshoot. I emerged in Münstergasse where the cathedral is worth visiting just for its door. Inside, it is austere, as befits a Reformation minster, but the painted sculptures over the great west door portray the Catholic Last Judgement in vivid 15th-century detail.

There are more than 200 figures including Solomon and Sheba dressed as medieval royalty, and the Wise and Foolish Virgins (the foolish were looking very angry about it). Down below in hell an adulteress was crawling naked on her stomach, a fornicator was being castrated and two prostitutes were, ironically, looking remarkably happy with their lot.

From here I walked down past the embassies of Junkerngasse and nipped through another passageway to end up back in Gerechtigkeitsgasse. Turning right at the Justice Fountain I crossed the lofty span of the Nydegg Bridge. Down below was the medieval harbour area known as Matte (meadow) where it used to be said people spoke English (“English” being Bernese slang for double-Dutch).

Across the bridge I came to the Bären Park where Finn and his mate are rearing their cubs. Until you realise there is a glass screen on the riverbank, it can be quite a surprise to see a large brown bear sleeping off his lunch. But then Bern is unique. I still couldn’t see why it was so chic in the Cinzano-quaffing 1950s but it’s charming — odd but utterly picture-postcard charming.

DETAILS: BERN

Sky Work launches a third daily service from City Airport to Bern on October 29, returns from £248 (flyskywork.com).

The Schweizerhof has doubles from £306 room only (schweizerhof-bern.ch).